Health forums are one idea being proposed by health committees as they try to find ways to engage more effectively with the community.
Public attendance at health committee meetings is traditionally poor and the joint Otago and Southland committees have yet to resolve the issue of appointing further non-elected community representatives.
Disability support advisory committee chairman Neville Cook said he envisaged the health forums as informal public meetings that could be attended by anybody who was interested.
Informal forums used to be held by the Southland District Health Board and they had been very effective, he told a recent committee meeting in Invercargill.
‘‘It worked and that is what I liked about it.
‘‘The idea was we wanted to tell people what we were doing and [hear] what they thought might be issues for them".
Sometimes, informal processes spread information better than more formal communication, Mr Cook said.
Committee member Dot Wilson said she was concerned the voice of disabled people would be lost at a forum.
For people on a limited income, the cost of attending public meetings could put them off going, she said.
It was likely there would be more attendance from providers of disabled services than from disabled people and the provider's perspective was often different from the user's.
‘‘My concern is that the voice of disabled people will be swallowed up by the providers.''
Committee member Peter Barron said he did not share that concern and he could not see why a forum would be dominated by provider groups.
Chief planning and funding officer Chris Fraser said, in his experience, providers were ‘‘very active'' in attending forums, as they had a personal and a financial interest in what district health boards were doing.
Community and public health advisory committee member Katie O'Connor last week told a separate meeting she liked the idea of a forum being a ‘‘much more engaged'' process.
Often, when health boards conducted formal public consultation, there would be more board members and staff at meetings than members of the public, she said.
Separate forums in Otago and Southland were proposed.
